The term 'ecology' has a lot to offer communication research. This biological
analogy opens up research into time and space dynamics, population growth and
lifecycles, networks, clusters, niches, and even power relationships between
prey and predators. The research perspective may be at either holistic (macro)
or individual (micro) levels of analysis. In McLuhan and Postman's tradition
of media ecology the concept takes a media-centric view referring to the way
in which media structure our lives and how they influence society. The focus
of this special issue, the concept of 'communicative ecology', is different
insofar as we put an increased emphasis on the meaning that can be derived from
the socio-cultural framing and analysis of the local context which communication
occurs in. We define a communicative ecology as a milieu of agents who are connected
in various ways by various exchanges of mediated and unmediated forms of communication
(Tacchi et al., 2003 ). From a communicative ecology perspective each instance
of media use is considered at both individual and community level as part of
a complex media environment that is socially and culturally framed. We do not
limit the scope of analysis to traditional print, broadcast and telecommunication
media but include social networking applications for peer to peer modes of communication,
transport infrastructure that enable face to face interaction, as well as public
and private places where people meet, chat, gossip.

We conceive of a communicative ecology as having three layers (Foth & Hearn,
2007). A technological layer which consists of the devices and connecting media
that enable communication and interaction. A social layer which consists of
people and social modes of organising those people - which might include, for
example, everything from friendship groups to more formal community organizations,
as well as companies or legal entities. And finally, a discursive layer which
is the content of communication - that is, the ideas or themes that constitute
the known social universe that the ecology operates in.

Using an ecological metaphor opens up a number of interesting possibilities
for analyzing place-based communication (e.g., in neighbourhoods, apartment
buildings, or - on a larger scale - suburbs and cities). It can help us to better
understand the ways social activities are organized, the ways people define
and experience their environments, and the implications for social order and
organization. For example, in analyzing an apartment complex, an ecological
metaphor might suggest first examining the features of the population in the
apartment and mapping the patterns of engagement within that population. In
addition we could ask how people relate to different places within the apartment,
and how this interaction is mediated by the use of technology. Do different
groups form around a coffee shop? Do email or cell phone connections define
other ecologies? Then we might also be able to study transactions between different
ecologies. The ecological metaphor focuses on whole of system interactions.
It also enables us to define boundaries of any given ecology, and to examine
how the coherence of that boundary and the stability of each ecology is maintained.
What topics of conversation define insiders and outsiders in the ecology? Finally,
it also opens up the question of the social sustainability of a communicative
ecology.

Similar sorts of questions have been asked by the contributors to this special
issue who research human communication phenomena in various place-based contexts.
The first article "Comparing the Communication Ecologies of Geo-ethnic
Communities: How People Stay on Top of Their Community" by Wilkin et al.
highlight the benefits to be gained from a communicative ecology approach by
presenting a communication map to help communicate with ethnically diverse populations.
Shepherd et al. follow with their contribution "The Material Ecologies
of Domestic ICTs" which examines the socio-cultural context of the media
and communication environments we create in our homes. The next article "Primary
Attention Groups: A Conceptual Aproach to the Communicative Ecology of Individual
Community in the Information Age" by Allison applies the layer model described
above to analyse individual social groupings. Peeples and Mitchell also found
the layer model useful in exploring the 1999 WTO protests in "No Mobs -
No Confusions - No Tumult: Organizing Civil Disobedience". Powell's article
"An Ecology of Public Internet Access: Exploring contextual internet access
in an urban community" concludes this special issue by offering a detailed
account of the role public internet access plays in the communicative ecology
of inner-city residents.

We thank our colleagues for their help and assistance in providing an extraordinary
high quality of peer review for this special issue of EJC: Corey Anton, Grand
Valley State University; Elija Cassidy, Queensland University of Technology;
Christy Collis, Queensland University of Technology; Victor Gonzalez, University
of Manchester; Phil Graham, Queensland University of Technology; Joshua Green,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Deborah Jones, Victoria University of
Wellington; Jesper Kjeldskov, Aalborg University; Mark Latonero, California
State University, Fullerton; Graham Longford, University of Toronto; Harvey
May, Queensland University of Technology; Lucy Montgomery, University of Westminster;
Tanya Notley, Queensland University of Technology; Christine Satchell, University
of Melbourne; Larry Stillman, Monash University; Jo Tacchi, Queensland University
of Technology; Wallace Taylor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Tommaso
Venturini, University of Milano - Bicocca. Our work is supported under the Australian
Research Council's Discovery funding scheme (project number DP0663854) and Dr
Marcus Foth is the recipient of an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Comparing the Communicative Ecologies of Geo-Ethnic Communities: How People Stay On Top Of Their Community

Holley A. Wilkin
Georgia State University

Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach
University of Southern California

Matthew D. Matsaganis
University of Southern California

Pauline Hope Cheong
State University of New York, Buffalo

Abstract. Relying on the theoretical frameworks of media
system dependency (MSD) and communication infrastructure theory (CIT), both
distinctively ecological approaches, this paper has methodological and applied
goals. The first is to highlight and persuade researchers and practitioners
of the advantages of studying communication ecologies - the web of interpersonal
and media (new and old/mainstream and geo-ethnic) connections that people construct
in the course of everyday life. The second aim is to present a comprehensive
multiethnic communication map to guide the efforts of all who seek the most
effective ways to communicate with ethnically diverse populations. In this paper
we provide a comprehensive look at the communication connection patterns of
African Americans, Anglos, Armenians, Chinese, Hispanics, and Koreans living
in several different Los Angeles communities.

Abstract. This article uses and extends Altheide´s notion of communicative
ecology to explore how the spatial logics of ICTs produce particular sociotechnical
performances in domestic places. Drawing on data from our ¨Connected Homes Project¨,
we discuss what people and ICTs do to the materiality of space, what these arrangements
in space do to households of people, and to what space-using people and space-defining
technologies do to each other. We present five cases of domestic environments
as five spatial logics for making boundaries: surveilling a place, producing
a dedicated media space, building a nesting place, and for distributing leisure
and work. It is concluded that as social agents we construct and design these
environments with particular social performances in mind, understanding that
social performance and the material arrangements of technologies in space and
time are intertwined.

A
Conceptual Approach to the Communicative Ecology of Individual Community in
the Information Age

Mary Ann Allison
Hofstra University

Abstract:

The Information Revolution has triggered substantive
changes in society, including the nature of community. Using the three layer
model of communicative ecologies designed by Foth and Hearn, I describe a
new form of community -- the primary attention group -- which is centered on
an individual and exists in both geographic and virtual space, using both
face-to-face and electronically mediated communications. Unlike traditional
community where the customs and norms are generally applicable, in an egocentric
primary attention group, the individual must negotiate three distinct subsystems
of relationships. The paper concludes with a description of a project in which
action research is being used to document student primary attention groups
with the objective of increasing student ability to facilitate and maintain
relationships which support productive and happy lives.

Abstract: Much of the critical analysis of the World Trade
Organization 1999 protest has focused on the use of technologies, both in
detailing the growth of independent media (Indymedia) as well as the use of
the Internet. The notable praise of technology’s reach, its ability to disseminate
information, its equalizing capacity, has eclipsed the more traditional acts
of mobilizing and organizing that were also present at the WTO protest. In
this analysis we extend the existing work to analyze how the social layer
(how the group organized) and discursive layer (communication themes) functioned
within a “networked” organization that was attempting to negotiate the incongruous
demands of starting a “movement” while organizing a “campaign.”

An Ecology of Public Internet Access:
Exploring Contextual
Internet Access in an Urban Community

Alison
Powell
Concordia University

Abstract: This paper explores public
internet access in an inner-city community with many “digital divide” characteristics.
Using a qualitative methodology attentive to social, technical, and geographic
contexts, the paper describes how internet access is integrated into a communicative
ecology: specifically, how internet access is identified by residents; what
it affords; and its potential for effective use. In addition, it argues that
the concept of “universal access” to internet infrastructures must be refined
to consider “contextual access” that is, access provided that takes into account
cultural, geographic, and demographic factors. Finally, at the level of practice,
the paper recommends striking a balance between “universal” and “contextual”
internet access in an urban area so that internet access becomes linked with
other cultural services, and is integrated into local contexts of use.